


Guardian Angel

by VeetVoojagig



Series: After Life [5]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-18
Updated: 2015-05-18
Packaged: 2018-03-31 02:38:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3961294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VeetVoojagig/pseuds/VeetVoojagig
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hangovers and salarians don't mix. A rude awakening, however, might be worth the bother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Guardian Angel

Pounding.

After a few minutes of it, Jimmy realized that it wasn’t, in fact, in his head. Even worse, it was external. He groaned, trying to block out the noise somehow, but it wouldn’t stop. Slowly he pulled himself out of the bed he’d collapsed into late the night before. He wasn’t surprised that he was still dressed in yesterday’s rumpled clothes, or by the smell of alcohol. They just backed up the taste in his mouth and his throbbing head. 

This was exactly how he’d woken up every day for the last couple weeks. 

Well, not exactly. Usually it was quieter. 

He stumbled to the door and yanked it open, glaring blearily at the people standing outside. The salarian lowered his fist. Ah. The pounding. 

“Huh?” he asked. It was the best he could do. 

“Good morning,” the salarian said brightly. “Selaris Security and Electronics, your first choice in personal safety. My companion and I,” with a quick gesture towards the human in matching uniform, “are expert technicians chosen on merit to install your new security upgrades as per specifications.” 

“Take a damn breath,” the woman muttered as Jimmy stared incomprehensively. “Right, just back up and let us get to work.” 

Jimmy closed his eyes tightly for a moment, then opened them again. No, still there. “Work?” he asked stupidly. He rubbed his head as if that might make it start working, or make things make sense. “Okay, what? Who the fuck are you? Why are you waking me up first thing in the morning?” 

The salarian blinked slowly. “I just explained. Here to install the security upgrades purchased…” He paused and checked the datapad he was holding. “Last night. Mmm, urgent, was it? Getting things processed and shipped from the Citadel usually takes much more time.” 

“Aw, shit,” he muttered. “Look, I didn’t buy anything. You’ve got the wrong place. Woke me up for nothing.” He glared balefully at the pair of techs. 

Before he could shut the door, the salarian had slipped inside. “This is certainly the right address. Mr… Jimmy Vega?”

Jimmy blinked. “I… yeah? But… I didn’t… I can’t afford anything like that.” 

The woman shrugged as she stepped into his apartment as well. “Payment’s already gone through. Lemme see that.” She reached over and yanked the datapad away from her partner. “Just like a salarian, paying more attention to the specs than anything else.” 

“Jenna! I’m trying to do my job!”

“Yeah, just hang on, all right? Here, kid. There’s a note for you. Seems like it’s a gift. So we can get to work, yeah? You’re not gonna make me listen to this guy whine the whole trip back to the Citadel?”  
The datapad lay in her extended hand. Jimmy gave her an exasperated look. Now they wanted him to read? Like his head didn’t hurt enough already. But fine. Whatever. He looked down at the screen, jabbing at the controls to lower the brightness. After a moment he could actually focus on the words across the screen. 

_Jimmy,_

_Please take care of yourself. I have to hope you’ve had company, because if you drank all of those bottles yourself, you’re heading towards a nasty case of alcohol poisoning. Also, you might want to keep the turian liquor out of reach so you don’t grab it by accident. That would be a really stupid way to die._

_This is state of the art, top-notch security. No one’ll be able to touch you unless they know the code. Speaking of, they’ll teach you how to program that. Anything you want. But if you want me to get in, use 6492. If you use something else, I’ll take the hint. No hard feelings._

_G._

It was all he could do not to drop the datapad. What the hell? He read it over again, and again. It was still there. What was this, some kind of joke? 

“Where… where did this come from?” he asked, his voice rough. 

“Order placed over the extranet. Originated on Omega, according to records,” the salarian said. 

Jimmy looked over his shoulder. His room… his room’d been cleaned. He turned and went to the bed. Yeah, all his trash had been picked up. His turian brandy… someone’d opened it. _Someone had opened his turian brandy._ “That asshole broke into my room,” he said in amazement. He wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. 

That asshole was alive!

“Well, that’s why you’re in luck,” the salarian said brightly, going into a string of babbling over the specs of the new security system. Jimmy stared at him in bemusement, the words a meaningless cloud. Whatever. Didn’t matter. Galahad was alive. 

He let the tech go on for about five minutes before he pulled himself out of his reverie. “Yeah, okay,” he said, interrupting him mid-sentence. “Just do it. Is it gonna take long? I need more sleep. Working late tonight.” 

“I’ll keep him occupied so he shuts up,” the woman—Jenna?—said, smiling wryly. “The actual work shouldn’t be loud, and we’ll be outta here as quick as we can.” 

“Great. Okay. I’m gonna… be over here.” He sat on the edge of the bed, reaching out to trace his fingers over the cool glass of the bottle. He’d been right here, he’d had this in his hands. Those talons had curled around the neck—and now he was picturing them curled around his cock. He dropped his arm and took in a deep breath. Fuck. Couldn’t think like that. People here. 

What the hell was wrong with him? He should be furious. For the lies. The pain he’d been through. The… what was it called, invasion of privacy? Broke into his fucking home. But… 

All he wanted was to see the turian again. To throw himself into his arms and drag him to the floor and… Shit, right, not going there. 

He didn’t look up until the salarian cleared his throat beside him. “Mostly finished. Few more touches. Including access code. Will show you how to program it yourself, change it if necessary. Can be changed remotely, of course, with call to our offices, but security identification required. Must set that as well. If you would?” He gestured towards the keypad they’d installed by the door. 

Slowly, he got up and followed the tech, half-listening to the instructions, answering questions by the third time they were asked, at least. When prompted, he went to the keypad and hit a sequence of four numbers. 

6\. 4. 9. 2. 

There was a flutter in his chest when he stepped away. Galahad would come back.


End file.
